Travel firms earn big money from outbound tours
A report from the Vietnam Tourism Association showed that 6.5 million Vietnamese traveled abroad in 2016 and spent US$7-8 billion. Spending per capita was US$1,230 on outbound tours, an increase of 15% over 2015.
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Singapore is one of the favorite destinations for Vietnamese. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, in 2015, the country received 15.2 million travelers, including 418,000 Vietnamese.
Vietnam was among the 15 markets with the highest numbers of visitors to Singapore.
The number of Vietnamese travelers to Singapore increased from 156,101 in 2006 to 400,000 in 2015, by 10.9%, much higher than the average growth rate in Asia (5.7%). Of 16.4 million foreign travelers to Singapore in 2016, there were 469,429 Vietnamese.
In 2015, per capita spending was SGD1,244, or US$912 in Singapore, higher than the average spending of ASEAN travelers and travelers from the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan.
Fifty-eight percent of Vietnamese come to Singapore for travel purposes and 21% for business. Of turnover of SGD520 million (US$$381 million) from Vietnamese, 30% was spent on shopping, 28% on accommodations and 15% on food.
Vietnamese are among the 10 groups of travelers who spent the most on shopping in Singapore in 2014-2015.
Vietnamese also like traveling to Cambodia, Japan and the ROK. Vietnam has been leading in terms of number of travelers to Cambodia since 2008. Twenty-one percent of foreign travelers to Cambodia in 2014 were Vietnamese.
As for the Japanese market, 233,763 Vietnamese came to Japan in 2016, up by 26.1%. Vietnam is among the seven fastest-growing markets for Japan.
According to Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), 27,572 Vietnamese came to the ROK in August 2017. Meanwhile, according to Dang Van Tuan, CEO of MP Travel, the number of Vietnamese travelers to the ROK is expected to increase by 30% compared with last year.
WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) reported that the Vietnamese spending on traveling abroad has increased notably from VND51,583 billion (US$2.2 billion) in 2011 to VND91,300 billion in 2016 (US$4 billion), while the figure is expected to reach US$10.3 billion this year.
Travel firms all have reported high growth rates in outbound services. In May and June 2017, Ben Thanh Tourist saw 40% growth rate in revenue from the domestic market (individual travelers) and a sharp 205% growth rate in outbound tours. In 2016, the number of inbound travelers increased by 7%, while outbound was by 20%.
Nguyen Minh Quyen, who has been providing outbound tours for 27 years, said more Vietnamese travelers are going abroad because the tours are getting cheaper. The fee for a tour to Singapore and Malaysia is just a bit higher than a tour from HCMC to Hanoi.
